Family Out Of Home
by Runespoor
Summary: Hinata's first festival alone of the Hyuuga compound, with her father's promise that he'll think about letting her attend the Academy if the day goes well. She *can't* get lost. (A day in the life-style; being a clan brat does things to your socialization levels; Uchiha Fugaku works a job that is not planning a coup.) [pre-canon][gen]


**Notes: **I wanted to write about a normal day in Konoha. Also,probably the only fic in existence where Uchiha Fugaku _judges _Hyuuga Hiashi as a father.

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**Family Out Of Home**

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A beautiful spring day in Konoha; the sun shining high in the sky, the streets buzzing with festival cheer, and guilty misery clawing at Hinata's bones.

For as long as she could remember, festival days had been the only ones she'd had the opportunity to leave the Hyuuga compound, and she'd looked forward seeing the village outside the compound walls. So far, she had only watched it with the Byakugan, inside looking out, and even then, only when she was alone and was sure no-one would scold her for it. Without ever being told, she guessed that it was not a proper use of their bloodline limit.

She had spent the last two weeks in giddy dizziness at the idea of being outside, _finally_, on her own. It would make it an even more significant day than every other past festival days, because she had always spent those next to her father, and while it had been interesting, she had also... not felt as fulfilled as she would have had she been allowed to roam, she felt. Experience things on herself, as just a little girl alone instead of the child trailing by Hyuuga Hiashi-sama's side.

And it was important because her father had as good as explicitly told her that her ability of behaving correctly on that day would be the test of whether or not she'd be allowed to attend the Ninja Academy.

Hinata had no dearer wish. Ever since she had seen Branch House children running out of the gates toward their friends in the morning, exchanging loud good-mornings, she had wanted to go there. She wanted so badly to have her own friends, to be - to be slightly less alone.

And this year, Neji-niisan was attending the Academy too.

Nausea twisted in her gut as she imagined the look he would send her next spring, when he'd go back to the Academy _and she wouldn't_.

And now she would never go, because she was lost.

Lost in the middle of the festival, with more people than she had ever seen in her whole life bustling past her, and she had no idea where she was, and she had to find out right now, because she would be a ninja, and ninjas didn't get lost.

...Maybe if she used the Byakugan?

Bringing her fingers in front of her, she formed the seal. She forced her hands not to tremble. The seal came easily to her now, anyway; she used the Byakugan enough. …Even though she was not really supposed to, especially not in the way she tended to use it – glancing past a corner when she feared she would cross Neji-niisan's path. Or her grandfather's. But she did it all the same, she didn't know why. Maybe she was too scared. A coward. Weak, and pitiful.

She was thinking in this manner, at the same time trying to focus on what she could glimpse of the buildings surrounding her through the brilliant chakra of a thousand human beings, when someone bumped her in the back and she fell over.

Had she been wearing her usual practical clothes, she'd have been able to prevent the fall and just stumble. But the yukata and geta made it impossible, and she had barely the time to throw her arms before her face so she wouldn't hit her head on the dusty ground, tiny gravel digging in the soft flesh of her palms.

A foot brushed past her thigh, another her shoulder, and Hinata yelped - she scooted to the side, scrambling, trying to get back to her feet. The Byakugan had shut down with her fall, she'd lost the focus, didn't see where the next foot might come from... If she didn't get up, she'd get trampled on, those people wouldn't see her soon enough to avoid walking _on_ her!

Suddenly, a large hand closed on her arm, and she was lifted in the air, then to her feet.

Confused, she looked up – then up – then up again – and all the way up there, there was a dark-eyed man's face frowning down at her. Hinata's shoulders hunched under the unfaltering gaze, and she 'eeped' faintly. The man didn't look – very sympathetic.

Then again, he wasn't from her clan, so there might a chance he wouldn't tell her father about her pathetic failure. She had _fallen_.

But he had helped her up. Even it was shameful, she had to do something about it.

Swallowing, Hinata forced the words out.

"Thank you, sir," she whispered.

She didn't dare take her gaze off the man, because he probably wasn't going to hear her over the crowd, and if she didn't look at him he wasn't even going to be able to read her thanks on her lips - oh no, what if he wasn't a ninja? Every Hyuuga culd read lips, but Hinata had never been told if outsiders could too - and she was already mortified over the incident. He must know she was an incompetent now, but there was no reason to make things worse and let him think she was rude on top of it.

Politeness was one of the only things Hinata succeeded at. The unchangeable rules provided steady grounds for her to stand on.

The frown didn't disappear, and now Hinata was really starting to fear she had done something horribly, dismally wrong.

"Aren't you a little young to be wandering on your own?"

Hinata shook her head a little. It wasn't too difficult, because her head already wanted to shake, along with the rest of her body, but Hinata refused to allow it.

"N-no, I'm not," she whispered again, in a pleading tone this time. She felt her eyes were wide open, and they made feel felt strangely vulnerable - her eyes that marked her as a Hyuuga, that made her so easy to recognize... All she could think about was that this man was going to tell her father, and she would never go to the Academy. She had no idea where she found the strength to speak further when the only thing she wanted to do was turn into a mouse and disappear. "I have just turned seven in December."

She winced when she realized she sounded like she was arguing with him. Why would he care what month she was born?

The man tilted his head to the side. His expression was still as grave, but there was something _slightly_ different about his eyes. Hinata wished he was a Hyuuga so she'd be able to understand what it was. It was so hard to understand what non-Hyuuga were feeling. Colored eyes made things so strange, a distraction from their facial expressions that she couldn't keep her gaze from sliding back to.

"Then you are the same age as my son, and I wouldn't let him run around unsupervised on a festival day either."

Immediately, Hinata perked up, staring up at the man open-mouthed. He… had a son her age?

The happy surprise vanquished her timidity.

"Does he go to the Academy?" she wanted to know.

This time she was sure there was something different in the way he was looking at her. Something around the lips, but it was gone too soon for her to decide if he was displeased or if he had been about to smile.

And in this moment, she didn't care. All that mattered was the man's answer. Maybe his son would be her _friend_.

"He is starting this spring," he told her. Hinata's mouth fell open. It would be – it would be so cool if he became her friend. "I assume you are starting too?"

Hinata vigorously nodded. Then she glanced behind the man as though she suspected he might be hiding his son there. After all, she reasoned, he had said he didn't want to leave him alone. Her father used to bring her everywhere with him just this way, during festival days.

"Where is he?"

Her cheeks heated up when she realized how insolent she sounded.

But the man didn't seem to mind.

"He's with his mother and brother."

Hinata took it in.

A million questions burned her lips.

How old was his brother? Hinata had a younger sister, and she also had an older brother, but she supposed Neji-niisan wasn't really her brother. Why wasn't the man with his family? Was his mother nice? Hinata missed her mother, even if she was careful not to let it bother her so much it would show. How was he called? Did he already know jutsus? Hinata did, a little, but she was bad at them and she couldn't wait for the Academy to begin, she was only aware of Hyuuga katas and she wanted to learn new ones.

She debated on how impolite it would be to ask at least one of these question when another dark-eyed man elbowed his way to the first man and panted, "Sir – there's trouble at the fish stand, I thought it better to come to you – the Kyu–"

Then he did a double-take when his eyes fell on Hinata, who 'meeped' again, and he paled when he looked up at the man. _The man with the Uchiha fan on his shoulder._ Hinata panicked. How could she ever have not noticed it? Why hadn't she paid attention? Plus, the other one had called him 'sir', he had to be important, that meant he knew her father, he _was_ going to tell her father everything she had done, oh no...

The men's eyes met – the older man, the one who had helped Hinata, looked in that instant more like Hinata's father than he had until that point, stony and frosty – and Hinata, through her terror, literally felt things were being exchanged well over her head. She would have given anything to be somewhere else.

"I see," the first man said calmly. "Yes, you did well to find me."

Then he looked down at Hinata. She faltered under his gaze, but he didn't look like he was angry. Not at her, she realized in a flash of insight, though there was a hard fold in his eyelids that said he was certainly angered at something.

"Last time I saw them, my family was having dango at the red tent. You should go find them, Mikoto will be delighted to share sweets with you." He eyed her for a moment while Hinata bit her lips and tried to muster enough courage to stutter it was too kind and she couldn't accept it. In truth, she'd be very thankful, but politeness had to be observed. Mikoto, she assumed, must be his wife. (Wasn't that the name of the clan head's-no, she was mistaken, just panicking again, her memory had never been that good anyway.) "My younger son's name is Sasuke; he'll sulk for a few moments but he'll get over it once you get him talking. Just don't let him run his mouth off."

Stunned, Hinata could only nod feebly.

"I'd ask Taro to accompany you, but I'm taking him with me. The red tent is just over there," he pointed, "and they must still be there. You will be able to find your way?"

Hinata started to nod, then paused, and asked, "H-how will I recognise them, Uchiha-san?"

He nodded gravely. "Both my sons have the Uchiha fan on the back of their shirts."

Relief surged through her. More than any physical detail, that was something she couldn't misinterpret. It wasn't easy for her to see differences between non-Hyuuga, except if their coloring was wildly different from average. And so far, she had only caught a glimpse of pink, and she was pretty sure she must have confused a woman's obi for a child's hair.

This man had dark eyes and dark hair, like a lot of people in Konoha. If the rest of his family did too - and they were Uchiha; they probably did - Hinata would really have a difficult time recognizing them.

She nodded again. "Thank you, Uchiha-san."

He smiled at her, then gestured briskly for the other policeman to show him through the crowd.

Comforted and filled with new bravery, Hinata started in the direction Uchiha-san had indicated to her. She could see the red tent and banners between the walking people, and now she had a goal, she found she could slip more easily between them; even the geta weren't as awkward as twenty minutes ago. She was going to spend the rest of the evening with the man's family, where there was a nice mother, and a real older brother, and a boy who was her age and who _would_ be her friend.

But she never reached the tent, because she caught a sudden flash of _golden_ hair and _blue_ eyes as a boy dashed past her, cackling, and the brilliant colors continued sparkling in her vision long after the echoes of the boy's laughter had drifted away.


End file.
